Just an experiment
by ForeverJohnlock
Summary: John has a nightmare. Sherlock is there to comfort him. Kisses, confessions and lots of fluff. My first johnlock fanfic. Any comments will be much appreciated! Now updated.
1. Chapter 1

**Just an experiment**

**Chapter 1**

4:15am. Sherlock cautiously stands in the doorway of John Watson's bedroom. "John… are you awake?"

John instinctively jumps up. He had just had a nightmare. He notices Sherlock, and realises he must have heard from the living room and was checking on his best friend.

"Are you okay?" The consulting detective asks John. John can tell from Sherlock's tone that he is worried. Recently he has become very protective.

"Yes… I think so. Just another nightmare, you know how it is." John replies, still half asleep.

"Alright then. Sleep well." Sherlock proceeds to leave and shut the door.

"Wait. Sherlock..." John manages to quickly splutter out some words before Sherlock leaves his large, empty room.

"Yes?" Sherlock quickly stops in his tracks. He knows what John is about to ask.

John clears his throat quietly. "Can you stay, please?"

This happens rather often when John has nightmares. The first time it happened, Sherlock was –as usual- still awake. It was 1:27 am and he heard John briefly scream and hit the floor in a panic. He ran up to his bedroom and lifted him back to the bed. Sherlock stayed in John's bed that night and he had slept better than he ever had before. Maybe it was because he didn't have to spend the night alone with just his thoughts, which was oddly was a nice change. After that night, Sherlock was confused. Confused with his feelings and his desire to be close to John again.

"Of course I will." Sherlock replies. He swiftly slides his dressing gown from his shoulders and lightly throws it to the uncluttered floor.

John moves over to the middle of the bed as Sherlock climbs in. The first time this happened was somewhat uncomfortable. But Sherlock and John quickly found a comfortable sleeping position; Sherlock would sleep on his back, and John's head would rest safely on Sherlock's chest. Their limbs would become entwined and John would place his right arm over Sherlock's waist. Their fingers would bond together and peacefully lay between them.

But tonight is slightly different. Sherlock can tell John is not okay, he is still shaken up from his nightmare. Sherlock moves himself so he is on slightly propped up against the pillows and pulls John closer towards him. John immediately responds and he rests his head on Sherlock's chest. The Consulting Detective is not one to comfort people; but there is something about John. Something that just breaks any rules or boundaries that were once set. Sherlock holds John for endless minutes, not ever wanting to let go; but he can feel his best friend slowly fall back to sleep, feeling safe in his best friend's arms.

Sherlock places a light, yet loving kiss on John's forehead, and doesn't stop himself from drifting to sleep, with his arms still tightly wrapped around John.

"Goodnight, my little blogger." Sherlock whispers gently.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

John wakes up suddenly and darts his eyes around the room, taking in his surroundings. It is now 5:20am; he has only been asleep for an extra couple of hours.

"_It's okay, I'm home with Sherlock, and I'm safe."_ He thinks to himself, before letting out sigh of contentment. He carefully twists his body around after the urge to admire Sherlock's unflawed face and picturesque black curls becomes too overwhelming.

John venerates Sherlock for several minutes, making mental notes of every aspect and feature of the Consulting Detective. The impulse becomes too strong to ignore. John leans in and plants an affectionate kiss on Sherlock's soft pale pink lips. John closes his eyes, feeling at ease with Sherlock's presence and his body being securely wrapped around him.

"Well this is a pleasant way to be woken up" Sherlock utters, with his eyes still closed, but half of a smirk painted across his face.

Sherlock opens his eyes to take a glance and John's face flushing a dainty shade of pink. It's like he can almost feel the embarrassment radiating off of John's cheeks.

"Oh don't be so embarrassed, John." Sherlock speaks to John in a way he rarely does: soft, slow, meaningful. "It's not like I've never kissed _you_ while you've been sleeping" Sherlock adds, but he quickly reddens after he realises what he had just revealed.

Sherlock had always puzzled John. He thought he simply never felt any emotions to any other living creature, but from the moment they met, John had fallen in love with Sherlock. Sherlock also knew that John was different, special- in fact, but he never imagined he would become so important.

"I'm sorry, John, I di-"Sherlock speaks, but he is quickly interrupted with a passionate kiss from John. Sherlock kisses back fiercely. This is the first time they have both been awake for a kiss, and Sherlock was not going to let this pass.

After a couple of minutes, John pulls away for oxygen.

"Well..." John mutters "That's about time"

Sherlock leans forward, and they rest foreheads.

"What do you mean?" Sherlock asks, slightly intrigued by John's choice of words. "Have you been wishing that to happen, John?"

John momentarily contemplates a reasonable answer to give Sherlock, but decides an impassioned kiss is a sufficient answer.

Sherlock smiles. "John..."

"Yes, Sherlock?" John answers.

"There is something I've been meaning to tell you for quite a while now; it's just there has never really been a right time to do so. But right now seems perfect." Sherlock takes a deep, slow breath before trying to gather some appropriate words from his large vocabulary.

"Unfortunately, I have to admit something. You know I am not good with expressing feelings, but…" Sherlock speaks quietly now, as if trying not to be heard.

John desperately hopes that Sherlock is about to confess what has been on his own mind since very first time they had met.

"John, I am madly, passionately, frustratingly deeply in love with you." Sherlock confesses with a look of admiration.

There is a silent pause for a few seconds, which to Sherlock seem like hours. John's head is spinning and his heart beating so rapidly and heavily it feels like a drum inside of his chest.

He has been waiting for this moment for such a long time and now suddenly it is here and he is speechless. Sherlock's words are still floating around his head like it is all a dream.

John leans slightly forwards before planting a kiss on Sherlock's forehead and quietly whispering: "I love you, too."


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

John lies in silence in his strangely empty bed. Sherlock must have woken up early and left to do whatever it is he does while John is sleeping. He can't help thinking to himself: "_What if Sherlock is just lying? He could simply be acting in order to test if my pupils dilate or if my pulse increases or another one of his stupid experiments…" _

A few seconds after, Sherlock appears once more in John's bedroom, carrying a tray filled with cups and plates.

"I thought you might need a big breakfast after last night's events." Sherlock says calmly, but with a proud smirk on his face.

"You made breakfast?" John enquires.

Sherlock never usually does many kind things towards other human beings. Maybe John was Sherlock's exception?

The consulting detective carefully lay down on the bed, parallel to his best friend and sets the tray gently down between them. John collects a cup of tea from the tray and takes a few sips to calm his nerves. He produces a small grin; Sherlock remembered how he likes his tea. "_I'm surprised he didn't just delete that information" _He thinks to himself. "_He **must** be serious if he remembers little things about me…"_

John's thoughts from this morning slowly creep up on him. He must ask Sherlock in order to prevent them both looking like fools in the long run.

"Sherlock, I need to ask you something." John states calmly "Now don't get mad at me, but I just need to know before we go any further."

"Go ahead, John." Sherlock replies, bracing himself for the next question, he has a slight idea of what John may ask him.

"Am… am I, is this just an experiment?" John's eyes never look up from his cup of tea while he asks this.

Sherlock isn't surprised John has asked this; a couple of weeks ago Sherlock asked John to take part in an experiment which involved them kissing each other for 10 minutes. Sherlock claimed he was testing for an increase in heart rate and blood pressure, but those were just excuses; ones that John did not fully believe. But he let Sherlock carry on regardless and played his part. He desperately tried to hide the fact that he thoroughly enjoyed that certain test. It is a lot more pleasant than whatever Sherlock does with those body parts that are being preserved in their fridge.

But no, as strange as it seems, Sherlock's feelings for John were not an experiment. He really did love him; he just needed to prove it to himself before he could ever mention it to John.

Sherlock leans over to John and kisses his soft lips.

"Of course not." He takes a quick breath before adding "John, from the very first moment I met you I knew you were going to be special to me. That experiment I asked you about before was to test my own reactions; I was debating whether I really did love you. I had never felt such intense feelings before and it made me feel so alive and strong, yet so weak at the same time." The look of sincerity in Sherlock's eyes is enough to convince John that he is telling the truth.

"And those results from that test were…?" John speaks quietly

"They were very conclusive." Sherlock declares.

They both smile and hug uncomfortably over the tray balancing between them. John makes Sherlock eat the breakfast with him, which consists of tea, eggs, bacon, toast and whatever else Sherlock managed to find in the fridge that was _not_ a human body part. John chuckles to himself, he is surprised at the quality of Sherlock's cooking.

John tells Sherlock "You should do this more often."

"I was planning to." Sherlock adds and smiles.

They stay awake for a couple of hours and watch TV in bed. Sherlock flicks through the channels impatiently.

"This is all rubbish. It is obvious that he is not the father of her baby, it doesn't take much deduction to work out that the baby is a different skin colour!"

So John switches off the TV, and they cuddle again. John is still tired from last night and can't prevent his eyes from closing, and he slowly drifts back to sleep.


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

John's phone buzzes twice from his bedside table. He extends an arm out of the comfortably warm duvet and picks it up. The brightness from the screen takes John by surprise and it takes a few seconds for his eyes to adjust to the intense light from his phone in contrast from his dark bedroom.

The texts read:

"I don't understand how you can sleep for such a long time. Anyway, it's 4:30pm. Take a shower, and then we are going to dinner. My treat. SH."

"Oh, nearly forgot. Also, I love you. SH."

John can't hide his sheer joy from receiving Sherlock's texts. He quickly jumps out of his warm bed and walks to the bathroom. After he has a very thorough clean, he returns to his bedroom and fumbles quickly through his wardrobe in order to find something decent to wear. Then his phone buzzes once more.

"You don't need to dress really fancy; I don't mind what you wear. SH"

And shortly after that the fourth and final text from Sherlock comes through.

"In fact, I wouldn't mind if you wore no clothes at all. SH."

John's cheeks blush at the thought of Sherlock thinking about him in that way. John had always thought Sherlock was asexual. John really _was_ Sherlock's only exception.

After a few minutes of consideration, John picks out a new(ish) pair of dark blue jeans, a grey shirt and of course- his best jumper. John never usually uses aftershave, but tonight he splashed some on, wanting to impress Sherlock.

He hurriedly runs down the stairs and walks quickly into the living room to find Sherlock wearing a silk deep purple shirt (which is John's favourite) and then the rest of his usual attire.

"Angelo's?" Sherlock says.

John smiles "Sounds great!"

"You smell different." Sherlock tells John. "I like your normal scent a lot more."

The pair leaves the flat and after a minute of walking Sherlock states: "You can do it."

"Do what?" John replies.

"Hold my hand." Sherlock adds. "I can tell you want to, but you think that I wouldn't be comfortable with and signs of affection in public. Well I don't care. In fact, I'd quite like to show you off to everyone."

With this, Sherlock quickly grabs John's left hand. Their fingers entwine just as they do when they are sharing a bed. John releases a sigh of serenity. He has never felt safer or more loved in his entire life.

They continue to walk to Angelo's, walking quite slowly; they could stay in this moment for ever. When the couple reach the restaurant, Angelo ushers the pair in and sets up a private table at the back of the restaurant. He sets down a candle on the table and says to Sherlock:

"This should make it a little more romantic for you and your date tonight." Angelo gives a wink before moving on to collect a bottle of wine for Sherlock and John.

John grins. "At least I won't have to correct him anymore."

Sherlock smiles back before kissing John affectionately over their candlelit table. He wishes he could capture this feeling and stay like it forever.


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5**

Later, after returning back to 221B, John and Sherlock lay on the sofa, attached together and inseparable. Sherlock is mostly lying on top of John, but he is not that heavy; so John doesn't complain.

"Sherlock?" John speaks quietly

"Yes, John?" Sherlock replies.

John feels the butterflies in his stomach at the sound of Sherlock saying his name. "What does this mean for us now?"

Sherlock had been expecting this question. Would they be classed as "boyfriends"? For once in his life, Sherlock was speechless.

"I mean, are we going to tell people?" John feels slightly embarrassed at the thought of telling people; especially Mycroft and the people at Scotland Yard.

"John, I'm pretty sure most people knew we were a couple before we even did."

"So we are a couple?" John swallows hard

"Yes." Sherlock smiles "I like that a lot."

"I love you, John." Sherlock passionately kisses John's sweet and soft lips. John responds back; smooching back just as forcefully and affectionately.

John takes a deep breath and smiles.

"I love you too, Sherlock."

They fall asleep peacefully.

After an hour or so, Mrs Hudson comes up to check on them; it has been strangely quiet. She smiles as she sees them asleep in each others arms. She grabs a blanket from a nearby chair and covers them up. But just this once. I mean, she isn't their housekeeper.


End file.
